Iowa GOP Tries Make To Voting Harder, Again
January 28th, 2007 at 07:12pm Geraldine
When the Republicans had the majority in the state legislature, they passed laws like this that made voting more difficult by instituting restrictive ID laws for new voters. When they were trying to hold their majority in the state legislature, they did dirty tricks like this to suppress voting. But now that they’re in the minority, they’re not stopping their crusade to impede voting. In the State Senate, Assistant Minority Leader David Johnson has recently introduced a bill that would require voting places to close two hours earlier. If his bill becomes law, it would significantly impede the ability for working Iowans to make it to the polls. As we have commented before, there are already too many impediments to voting. In the 2006 election, voter turnout in Iowa was less than 40%. While most people would be concerned about the fact that voter turnout for such an important election was so low, by introducing this bill, David Johnson and the rest of the Republican leadership seem to be concerned that voter turnout was so high. Johnson and his Republican cronies should be ashamed of themselves for trying to put yet another stumbling block before Iowa voters.
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Entry Filed under: State Politics, Voting Rights
Related Searches: assistant minority leader, iowa gop, iowa voters, voting places, republican leadership
1 Comment Add your own
1. Rob Sand | January 28th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Good post about a bill that people should be concerned about… but the Johnson County office is using a very inaccurate measurement of voter turnout that should not be replicated or reproduced elsewhere.
Their numbers are using the total population of each county as the denominator in determining turnout percentage, rather than using either the total voting-age population or the total number of registered voters. The latter two are the only acceptable figures for press or for academia because they are vastly more accurate. No one expects people under 18 to vote, so they shouldn’t be counted when figuring turnout. The true figure for voter turnout in 2006 in Iowa is 47.4%.
That figure comes from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/oster017/smartpolitics/2006/12/upper_midwest_leads_the_nation.html
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